Maintaining problems with primarily SPS

[Blackwrench]

Hey there,

I am the proud owner of a Reefer 425 XL that I now own for about a year. I had a Reefer 250 before that, also for about a year, so I am in the hobby for about 2 years now.

I started off with some GSP and after a while I added some LPS like hammer coral, acans, torch coral, bubble coral etc. They all (except for maybe the torch, that lost a few heads but looks like other parts keep growing) are doing great and are growing.

I have had trouble keeping SPS right from when I bought my first SPS frag and I just can’t find the issue. At first, I had a calendrium with massive growth as well but eventually it started STNing and now nothing of it is left. Same for plating montipora, got some growth at first but it died down. It is still alive, but it isn’t as vivid anymore and it used to glow under my blue LEDs late at night. I do still have a stylophora that seems to do just fine and which I’ve had for about one and a half years, but when I bought it it had bright white growth tips and that was completely gone after about a month. This happens with a lot of corals I buy, if I even manage to keep them alive.

I’m running the triton method, I dose 3.5ml of core 7 every day. I have 2 kessil A360We lights and for flow I use two gyre’s (xf230) on constant mode (40 or 50%). I really hate my current aquascape which I plan to make more open soon to allow for more flow through the rocks. I’m going to drill the RRR and put some acrylic rods through them to create a more interesting scape.

My water parameters seem to be just fine. I keep my alk at 8.0 for the triton method and it’s pretty stable for as far as I can measure with the salifert testkit. PO4 is mostly between 0.02 and 0.10, only my nitrates are higher than I want (around 20 ppm). But I see plenty of beautiful tanks running at such high nitrates.

I also can’t really seem to get the nitrates down. I dose NoPoX (10ml a day) and I have a bit of Caulerpa growing in my sump area. I also have some hair algae growing in the display. I also don’t feed heavily and I have only 9 small fish and no tangs.

What can I do to improve my tank in such a way that I can keep SPS and grow them? Is my lighting not sufficient? Is my flow not sufficient? What do I need to change?

I would like to have a beautiful mixed reef with mostly LPS like torches, hammers, acans, frogspawns on the bottom layer and the sand bed, and SPS more to the top.

Attached is my most recent triton test.

 

[Jordan Parker]

What lights are you running?

SPS requires a lot of light to be sustained properly. I run two Viparspectra units and four T-5 bulbs over mine and they still beg for more it seems.

Also, your P04 seems pretty high if it s hitting that .1ppm range.

 

[Blackwrench]

I run two kessil A360We. They ramp up and down for 3 hours a day to 85% intensity, and then there is a constant period for 5 hours.

 

[Waters]

I personally would stop the triton method, stop the NoPoX dosing, increase water change frequency (which should lower both Nitrates and Phosphates....assuming you are using RO/Di water), and let everything stabilize. Your lights and flow seem fine. Keep everything simple until you start seeing the growth you want.

 

[Blackwrench]

I personally would stop the triton method, stop the NoPoX dosing, increase water change frequency (which should lower both Nitrates and Phosphates....assuming you are using RO/Di water), and let everything stabilize. Your lights and flow seem fine. Keep everything simple until you start seeing the growth you want.

But this doesn't really add much stability to the tank right? Since you're basically only replenishing the consumed elements once every week or so?

How big of a water change and in what interval would you suggest?

 

[madweazl]

How high off the water are your Kessils? Anything more than about 6" and the PAR will be quite low. It sounds like the acropora are dying a slow death and that may be due to low PAR levels (though I've had most survive and grow in as little as 100 PAR). The Gyre 230s at 40-50% flow are very low for SPS, especially if they're running in anti-sync. By comparison, I'm running two MP40s (anti-sync) at 100% in a 75g and would say I'm just on the good side of adequate flow.

 

[Blackwrench]

How high off the water are your Kessils? Anything more than about 6" and the PAR will be quite low. It sounds like the acropora are dying a slow death and that may be due to low PAR levels (though I've had most survive and grow in as little as 100 PAR). The Gyre 230s at 40-50% flow are very low for SPS, especially if they're running in anti-sync. By comparison, I'm running two MP40s (anti-sync) at 100% in a 75g and would say I'm just on the good side of adequate flow.

I had them 8 inches off the water for quite some time, and I raised them last week to 10 inches to get a bit better covering. I'm thinking about adding a 3rd kessil or switching to hybrid/something else entirely.

The issue is not specific to acropora, I know my limits and if montiporas or hystrix type of SPS won't grow well then acropora won't either for sure.
I could turn up the gyres but I'm afraid to tear my LPS off the bone. I also have an 8000 liter return pump and a jebao rw4 in pulsing mode by the way.

 

[madweazl]

A third Kessil would certainly help in regard to lighting. At 10" above the water, you have quite a bit of light spilling outside of the aquarium that is being completely wasted. You can check out some PAR measurements I took of two A360WEs in this post. At 10" off the water, you can roughly cut those numbers in half.

 

[dwest]

I had them 8 inches off the water for quite some time, and I raised them last week to 10 inches to get a bit better covering. I'm thinking about adding a 3rd kessil or switching to hybrid/something else entirely.

The issue is not specific to acropora, I know my limits and if montiporas or hystrix type of SPS won't grow well then acropora won't either for sure.
I could turn up the gyres but I'm afraid to tear my LPS off the bone. I also have an 8000 liter return pump and a jebao rw4 in pulsing mode by the way.

I’d go with the hybrid. Will eliminate lighting as a potential problem.

 

[fabutahoun]

10 Inches is too high, it looks to me that the corals are not getting enough light and flow . I'd lower the Kessil and Increase the gyre flow to be 50% when the lights are off and 80-90 when the lights are on. increase flow and keep an eye on your LPS, if you feel that the flow is too strong try to re-position the LPS in areas that have less flow.


To be sure 100% about light you need to somehow get a PAR meter, some shops offer it for rent.

 

[dwest]

I’d go with the hybrid. Will eliminate lighting as a potential problem.

I also agree with waters. Just do 10% weekly water changes and monitor alkalinity for now.

 

[Blackwrench]

A third Kessil would certainly help in regard to lighting. At 10" above the water, you have quite a bit of light spilling outside of the aquarium that is being completely wasted. You can check out some PAR measurements I took of two A360WEs in this post. At 10" off the water, you can roughly cut those numbers in half.

Seeing as you tested the hybrid fixture, would you recommend that or adding a 3rd kessil?

 

[Jordan Parker]

I agree with lowering your Kessils and adding a 3rd. You could also supplement with some T-5's like I had to help some with shadowing.

Do you have a phosphate reactor by chance? It could help with your phosphate levels.

I also run a Triton style tank in that I don't do water changes, I carbon dose about 1.5ml steadily throgout the day, have a refugium, and run a GFO reactor. Before the reactor, my sps was rather brown in appearance. Since bringing it online, I have noticed a significant increase in coloration and overall system stability.

 

[Waters]

But this doesn't really add much stability to the tank right? Since you're basically only replenishing the consumed elements once every week or so?

How big of a water change and in what interval would you suggest?

Yes, the frequent water changes will help keep your numbers stable, along with replenishing any missing nutrients/elements that might be missing. The amount and frequency (although I wouldn't worry about changing water more than once a week) will be based on how fast your nitrates and phosphates begin to drop). I change about 15 gallons weekly in my 105 gallon SPS system. Regarding the lighting......it might be as issue long term but low lighting normally won't cause high growth, then RTN like it appears to be doing. Almost seems like some element is being consumed as the coral grows, which isn't being replaced.

 

[madweazl]

Seeing as you tested the hybrid fixture, would you recommend that or adding a 3rd kessil?

The hybrid fixture was actually for our other tank but curiosity got the better of me and I tried it out on the 75g. Prior to that, the tank was lit by two Kessils and two T5s (LET retrofit) that also worked well. I do like having the four T5s because it gave me more options in regard to perceived color (12k look that I prefer using two Blue+, one AquaBlue Special, and a Purple+). My tank has a center brace so a third Kessil wasn't an option.

 

[Blackwrench]

Thanks for the input guys. Guess I will lower my lights again and start looking for a third kessil. After I rearranged my aquascape I will probably turn up the gyres then.

 

[hart24601]

Sounds like a good call! I personally wouldn't worry about shading for a mixed reef with 3 kessils if you have them mounted properly so the light reflects off the glass. A seneye for $200 is a good investment for checking PAR.